France hit by dramas

France coach Bobbie Goulding will not finalise his team to face New Zealand in Toulouse on Sunday morning (NZT) until an hour before kick-off after his squad was decimated by injury, illness and suspension.

Goulding was down to 16 fit players at training earlier this week and was forced to draft in New Zealand-born forwards Artie Shead and Andrew Bentley.

Centres Jean-Philippe Baile and Sebastien Raguin and second rower Cyril Gossard have all been ruled out with knee injuries, prop Remi Casty has a broken hand and fellow front rower David Ferriol is suspended.

In addition, winger Dimitri Pelo has been in quarantine since Sunday after going down with swine flu and fullback Clint Greenshields has also been showing symptoms of the illness.

Goulding began the tournament with a 22-man squad following the withdrawal of Casey McGuire and was given permission to bring in Shead and Bentley, who both qualify to play for France through residency.

On the positive side, halfbacks Maxime Gresque and Christophe Moly have both recovered from the injuries which forced them to sit out last Friday's 34-12 defeat by England in Doncaster and winger Cyril Stacul also hopes to return.

The Kiwis, upbeat after an opening 20-20 draw with Australia, are firm favourites to extend their unbeaten run against the French to 19 matches going back to a 6-5 defeat in Perpignan in 1980.

New Zealand was made to work for a 22-14 victory on its last visit two years ago and coach Stephen Kearney is warning his players against complacency.

"You only have to look at Tests the Kiwis have played here against the French in recent years," said Kearney.

"We need to be mindful about working to improve in a lot of areas of our game and being concerned with getting our preparation right to give us every chance of putting together the sort of performance that will be required."